A Practical Landscape: Martha Berry, Robert Cridland, and the Gardens at Oak Hill
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Magnolia grandiflora The Laurel Tree of Carolina Publication of the Southern Garden Catesby’s NaturalM History, 1743 agnoliaHistory Society Vol. XXX No. 3 Summer-Fall 2017 A Practical Landscape: Martha Berry, Robert Cridland, and the Gardens at Oak Hill By Timothy David Brown, Athens, Georgia “I pray that I may leave the world more beautiful than I found it.” – Martha McChesney Berry Encompassing more than 25,000 acres, Berry College is consistently ranked among the most beautiful campuses in the world. Perched in the Northwest Georgia foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the institution, founded in 1902 to help poor children, grew to national stature during the 1920s with the support of affluent benefactors such as Henry Ford. It thus resulted into one of America’s most extraordinary Gothic Revival campuses. Today, every part of Berry College bears the signature of its founder, Martha McChesney Berry, whose resolve and strength of character enabled achievements unparalleled among her peers. Martha Berry’s love of beauty was instilled by her Crystal by Photo Linsenbigler. father, Thomas Berry, who understood the importance State Champion Japanese Maple overlooks Oak Hill's of aesthetics in a well-rounded education: he taught his historic Bridal Walk. children to appreciate the natural world around them and to see possibility in all things. Born six months after the Martha Berry also met Robert B. Cridland, a Civil War’s end, the first twelve years of Martha Berry’s life Philadelphian landscape architect who had achieved were spent during a time when Reconstruction reshaped success with Practical Landscape Gardening, an the world around her. The South had been devastated, (continued on page 3) but the Berrys thrived; in 1867 the growing family moved to Rome, Georgia, where in 1871 they purchased Oak Inside this Issue Hill—a sizeable farm overlooking the Oostanaula River. Propelled by intense compassion to help the poor, Pg. 5 David Williston: The First Negro Landscape Martha Berry had become one of the most respected Architect women in the world during the 1920s. A visit from Pg. 8 John Lee Pratt's Chatham Manor Theodore Roosevelt in 1910 had garnered national attention, and the Berry Schools captured the imagination Pg. 10 Book Review: The Rose Rustlers of Northern aristocrats. Early introductions among Pg. 10 SGHS State Ambassadors Program the country’s elite resulted in deep friendships with people such as Henry & Clara Ford, Emily Vanderbilt Pg. 11 SGHS Benefactors, Patrons, Sustainers, and Hammond, Kate Macy Ladd, and Corinne Roosevelt Donors Robinson, Theodore’s younger sister. CALENDAR February 20, 2018. Cherokee Garden Library Staci L. Catron, Cherokee Garden Library Director, Lecture and Book Launch, Grave Landscapes: The and Mary Ann Eaddy, historic preservationist Nineteenth-Century Rural Cemetery Movement. will discuss their new University of Georgia Author and preservationist Erica Danylchak will Press book. More information and tickets: www. discuss her new University of South Carolina atlantahistorycenter.com/lectures Press book co-authored with the late James R. Cothran. More information and tickets: www. May 9, 2018. SGHS State Ambassadors Event for atlantahistorycenter.com/lectures Georgia and Florida members. See article below. April 13-15, 2018. SGHS 36th Annual Meeting June 17-22, 2018. 22nd Annual Historic in Jacksonville, FL. Sites include The Cummer Landscape Institute: “Preserving Jefferson’s Museum and Gardens, Jacksonville’s Historic Gardens and Landscapes.” This one-week course Parks, Glen Saint Mary Nurseries, and Historic uses Monticello’s gardens and landscapes and the St. Augustine. The headquarters hotel for guests, University of Virginia as outdoor classrooms to study programs, and tour departures will be the historic landscape preservation. Lectures, workshops, DoubleTree by Hilton, 1201 Riverplace Blvd., field trips, and practical working experiences provide Jacksonville, FL 32207, (904) 398-8800. Group an introduction to the fields of landscape history, rate is $123 per night plus tax. To qualify, identify garden restoration, and historical horticulture. Visit: that you are with the Southern Garden History www.monticello.org/hli Society. Cutoff date for hotel registrations is March September 21-22, 2018. 12th Annual Heritage 13, 2018. More information will appear at www. Harvest Festival at Monticello. Celebrate the southerngardenhistory.org revolutionary legacy of Thomas Jefferson with April 21-28, 2018. Historic Garden Week in workshops, lectures, and tomato tastings and more. Virginia. More than 250 of Virginia’s most beautiful Featured speakers include Peter Hatch, Michael gardens, homes, and historic landmarks take part in Twitty, Ira Wallace, and many more. Visit: www. the celebration of Historic Garden Week, described heritageharvestfestival.com as “America’s Largest Open House.” This tour, October 19-20, 2018. 30th Annual Southern organized by the Garden Club of Virginia since Garden Symposium and Workshops: “The 1927, supports restoration projects statewide. Visit: Changing Nature of Gardening,” in St. Francisville, vagardenweek.org Louisiana. Featured speakers include celebrated April 14-16, 2018. Colonial Williamsburg’s authors Andrea Wulf, Rick Darke, and Doug 72nd Annual Garden Symposium: “Ordinary to Tallamy. More information will be available at: Extraordinary, Creating Landscape Designs that www.southerngardensymposium.com Reflect Beauty and Awe,”Learn how to create harmonious gardens that sing with creativity, as well as those that reflect personal expression and reverence for design fundamentals. Guest speakers Join your Southern Garden will discuss how to integrate existing elements, History friends! effectively combine plants and hardscape materials, and create features of distinctive landscape styles. Social media enthusiasts can now follow More information will be available at www.history. SGHS on Instagram at: org email: [email protected]; (800) 603-0948 https://www.instagram.com/southerngardenhistory/ and search for April 25, 2018. Cherokee Garden Library #southerngardenhistory Lecture, Book and Exhibition Launch, Seeking on Facebook and Instagram. Eden: A Collection of Georgia’s Historic Gardens. 2 Magnolia • Summer-Fall 2017 Vol. XXX, No. 3 A Practical Landscape:……(continued from page 1) unexpectedly popular book that had undergone several never been plumbed or electrified, was in great need of reprints by the mid-1920s. Cridland’s straightforward modernization. Recognizing the home’s potential to approach appealed to Martha Berry, who enlisted him to accommodate Berry College’s affluent visitors, Kate Macy beautify her burgeoning campus with new pathways and Ladd presented a sizeable donation to transform Oak plantings. In 1923, Cridland designed the gardens for the Hill—the house, the outbuildings, and the landscape— “House o’ Dreams,” a Craftsman retreat built at the top from a nineteenth-century farm into a fashionable 1920s of Lavender Mountain in honor of the schools’ twentieth estate. anniversary. An intimate garden, the House o’ Dreams Never one to hesitate, Martha Berry plunged into the incorporates almost every principle of Cridland’s text, project with full force, and in 1928 work began on the and the design would prove a fitting prelude to a more house and grounds almost simultaneously. Coolidge & ambitious project: The gardens of Oak Hill. Carlson Architects of Boston was enlisted to redesign the Martha Berry had come into possession of Oak house and Robert Cridland was asked to submit plans to Hill upon the passing of her mother, Frances Rhea transform the grounds. Berry, in 1927. The Greek Revival house, which had Cridland’s bold new design for the Oak Hill estate was implemented in stages, beginning with the gardens and paths surrounding the main house. He created four separate gardens, each unique—a formal garden, a goldfish garden, a sundial garden, and a hillside garden. Three summer houses provided shady respite for visitors, and walkways were laid with colorful native stone. Ponds, fountains and classical sculpture provided interest, and the entire scheme was unified by strict, geometric axes that are softened by exuberant plantings. Berry College Memorial LibraryBerry Archives. College Memorial Complementing the main gardens’ Cridland's original plan for Oak Hill's formal garden included a staggering number of plantings. geometry, Cridland designed a more rustic hillside garden on the ridge behind the house. Two winding paths on the near-vertical slope celebrate natural contours and are punctuated with flowering bulbs, a decorative water feature, and seats created from boulders found on site. Oak Hill’s entrance was relocated to the north—the gates were positioned directly across the highway from the Berry Schools’ entrance, and Cridland carved a new, winding driveway so that visitors passed through a natural landscape as they approached the house. The entry drive crossed a new bridge of native stone, and sugar maples and dogwood trees were planted in abundance. Communication between Martha Berry and Robert Cridland Berry College Memorial LibraryBerry Archives. College Memorial was sometimes contentious—Martha Cridland's rendering for Berry's House o' Dreams is drawn in pencil on canvas. (continued on page 4) Vol. XXX, No. 3 Magnolia • Summer-Fall 2017 3 A Practical Landscape:……(continued from page 3) Berry did not mince words when displeased. In a letter to A box filled with old rolls of paper turned out to Cridland dated April 11, 1928,